Monday, September 04, 2006

Honour Killings

One in 10 young British Asians believes so-called honour killings can be justified, according to a poll for the BBC's Asian Network.

Of 500 Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims questioned, a 10th said they would condone the murder of someone who disrespected their family's honour.

Notice how all the religions are lumped together? I've just listened to the related documentary on the Asian Network and there's no breakdown of the poll findings there either. Is the BBC trying to hide something?

Last week, Diana Nammi, the co-founder of the London-based International Campaign Against Honour Killings, revealed that the number of women seeking help from her organisation had quadrupled over the past year.

She said that the women's desire for independence had caused friction within their families. "The number of honour killings has gone up because more women are realising that they have rights," she said.

In the past year, Miss Nammi's organisation, which provides advice and counselling for victims of domestic violence and those in fear of their lives, has assisted 200 women - up from 50 the previous year. Miss Nammi believes that, in the past year, the organisation has saved the lives of at least a dozen women. The women were all Muslim and were mostly from Afghan, Iranian and Kurdish families. "Believe me, many of these women were in danger. Sometimes, families were paying for bounty hunters to look for them."

Someone needs to look at the results statistically if the answers are to have any relevance.

Although the sample cohort appears to be well matched in terms of sex and age, it is flawed in terms of religion. Note out of 500 in the cohort less than 10% were Christian. In terms of raw data 3x as many Muslims (17) and Hindus (14) support honour killing under some circumsatnces as Christians (5)

who's to say the christians/hindus/sikhs were actually that? Assuming they were all "men of middle east/asian ethnicity" they could say what they pleased about their religion without necessarily having to provide proof. Isn't taqquyah an honoured islamic custom of lying to protect yourself or your religion?